Monday, October 13, 2008
I know there is a BUOY around here somewhere...
The changes to daylight savings time means more rows in the dark for us Morning Masters rowers. Whether you are a rower, coxswain, or steering a sculling shell you need to be aware of those giant metal red and green buoys out there on the river. They are not lighted so you should know of their general location as you navigate up and down the river.
This info has been neatly drafted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I have included links to the Navigation Maps of the areas that we typically travel during practice. In addition, everyone should have attended the fall TRRA Safety Meeting and possess a standard level of river safety and navigation knowlege as it pertains to the Allegheny River and its traffic patterns.
If at any time you have been put into a situation and feel unsure about coxing, rowing, or steering it is your responsibility to use common sense and sound judgement to express this to your coach and boatmates prior to leaving the boathouse. Do not proceed onto the river and "wing-it" so to speak.
As far as the buoys are concerned - here are the maps. What you are looking for on there are the green and purple diamonds. The green diamonds represent the green buoys and the purple diamonds represent red buoys. The general rule is to stay "Right of RED" when going upstream and "Left of GREEN" when going downstream.
The masters women typically travel a consistent pattern upstream to Lock/Dam #2 (near the Highland Park Bridge) and return downstream past the end of Herr's Island. For this traffic pattern you will notice that there are 5 red buoys in the upstream direction (1 prior to the 62nd St. Br. and 4 after) and 3 green buoys downstream (all prior to the 40th St. Br).
Please take a few minutes to view the maps below. Clicking on an image will open a large readable version of the document.
October 14, 2008 at 8:47 AM
Nothing replaces common sense!! Also, nothing replaces experience, but the only way to get experience is to do! As you are coxing, steering sculling boats, notate bouys and their location. In the dark, you can see a large black shadow sitting above the river surface. Get into the habit of finding landmarks that signal an upcoming bouy. A few I use when sculling (coming down river from the 60th street bridge) is the open mouth of the tunnel--green bouy, 2 or 3 white houses sitting up on top of a hill--green bouy, overhead powerlines--green bouy (before 40th street bridge.) Up river--red bouy at the marina before 60th st bridge, red bouy above the 60th st bridge. And scores of bridge abutments going down river toward Heinz field. Be alert, look and scan often.
October 14, 2008 at 8:54 AM
Jen,
This is extremely useful, thanks very much!
- John Buck
October 16, 2008 at 9:20 AM
For the last 2 years I have been wishing for this kind of information. As a recently 'graduated' novice rower, I found that having steered a quad and rowed a single numerous times this summer/fall during practices, I now have a much better, although far from perfect, sense of the river and the buoys. In support of Luanne's remarks about gaining knowledge by doing, I must say that nothing could have enhanced my desire to learn the river and buoys more than being alone in a single or feeling responsible for the safety of my quad-mates when steering in bow. Oh yeah, and then there's that adrenaline rush and the pressure of wanting to row hard to beat the 8's and that other quad that's gaining on you AND watching for the boats coming up stream in the other direction as you speed toward them going backward! The info that Jbro has provided builds upon an excellent summer of rowing for me. Thanks Jbro!
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